Florent Noulèkoun

The increasing rate of land use intensification and the rising evidence of climate change impacts raise concerns about the viability of valued non-timber forest product (NTFP)-providing trees. This calls for the assessment of the current status and future trajectories of their populations. Using population data collected from three land-use types (e.g., grazing lands, riverine areas and natural forest) in western Tigray, we evaluated the vulnerability of the multipurpose baobab tree (Adansonia d

Understanding the complex diversity of species and their potential uses in traditional agroforestry systems is crucial for enhancing the productivity of tropical systems and ensuring the sustainability of the natural resource base. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the role of home gardens and parklands, which are prominent tropical agroforestry systems, in the conservation and management of biodiversity. Our study quantified and compared the diversity of woody and herbaceous perennial

Climate change is predicted to affect species distribution worldwide. Most of the methods used to evaluate such impact so far assume that species respond to the environmental gradients in a uniform way along their distribution range. Because populations occupying different niches may differ in their response to climate change due to local adaptation, accounting for intraspecific variation in species distribution models (SDMs) may yield more reliable predictions for widely distributed species. Pt

Climatic and edaphic effects are increasingly being discussed in the context of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning. Here we use data from West African semi-arid tree savannas and contrasting climatic conditions (lower vs. higher mean annual precipitation-MAP and mean annual temperature-MAT) to (1) determine how climate modulates the effects of species richness on aboveground carbon (AGC); (2) explore how species richness and AGC relate with soil variables in these contrasting climatic conditions

Abstract Aim Despite mounting empirical evidence regarding the positive effects of forest structural diversity (STR DIV ) on forest functioning, the underlying biotic mechanisms and controlling abiotic factors remain poorly understood. This study provides the first assessment of the interactive effects of STR DIV and diversity in species and functional traits on aboveground biomass (AGB) in natural forests in West and East Africa. Location West and East Africa. Time period 2014–2020. Major taxa

The importance of terrestrial ecosystems for carbon sequestration and climate regulation is acknowledged globally. However, the underlying structural drivers are still not well understood, particularly across distinct tropical forest ecosystems where trees species have different growth habits and potential to reach different maximal size. In particular, how important are different tree size classes in contributing to stand aboveground carbon (AGC) remains unclear across forest ecosystems. Here,

Abstract Given recent and projected climate change, the study of adaptation and mitigation strategies which involve ecologically and economically important plant species is urgently needed. Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev. is a species of both economic and ecological importance. We use 229 locational records gathered in the dry highlands of Ethiopia, nineteen environmental variables and the modelling program MaxEnt to model both the present and possible future distributions of this species. T

The adverse impacts of ecosystem degradation have raised the need for forest landscape restoration (FLR) to be included in international sustainability agendas. However, the path towards successful FLR implementation faces numerous biophysical, socioeconomic and governance challenges because FLR operates within complex socioecological systems. In the present study, we review and discuss FLR challenges in the context of global environmental change. We propose a roadmap consisting of five interlin

Abstract Aims: Mixed‐species forests are known to be highly productive systems because of their high species diversity, including taxonomic diversity (species richness) and structural diversity. Recent empirical evidence also points to plant maximum height, as a functional trait that potentially drives forest above‐ground biomass (AGB). However, the interrelations between these biotic variables are complex, and it is not always predictable if structural diversity attributes or functional metrics

Despite the importance of agroforestry parkland systems for ecosystem and livelihood benefits, evidence on determinants of carbon storage in parklands remains scarce. Here, we assessed the direct and indirect influence of human management (selective harvesting of trees), abiotic factors (climate, topography, and soil) and multiple attributes of species diversity (taxonomic, functional, and structural) on aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks in 51 parklands in drylands of Benin. We used linear mixed-e